The 36th Chamber of Shaolin: Old School Kung Fu

Like any good pop culture nerd I have to show an appreciation for the films of the past in order to fully appreciate the films of today and to realize how bad the ones made today truly are in comparison. Yet even as I watch older films I can't help but wish that they were made with our wonderful movie tools of today. But what of my beloved kung fu? I know that it will feature funny sound effects and bad dubbing but how does the action measure up when compared to the martial arts stars of today? Well what better way to find out than to check out the flick that inspired the title of the Wu Tang Clan's first album?

So it takes place in China and that's about all I gathered right away. There's some sort of rebellion going on against foreign invaders and the guy that played "The Guy in the Kato Mask" and "Pai Mei" in the kill bill movies (Gordon Liu) gets involved with the rebellion. Sadly our hero is discovered and he and nearly everyone who was involved in the rebellion is hunted down and killed. Desperate to be trained in kung fu our hero adopts a new name and begins a rough tutelage under the Shaolin masters with the hope of aiding the rebels. And so begins the best montage I have ever seen. Starting with the lowest rung and slowly but surely moving up through the basic skills San Te becomes a full blown master in about a year and thus begins taking his steps towards revenge.

From a kung fu nerd stand point this is the Holy Grail. This is the first film that I know of that actually shows the inside of the legendary Shaolin temple and their training methods to such an exacting degree. It's also great to watch a young Gordon Liu master these abilities. And finally something that will only apply to the hardcore nerds this movie actually explains why the three poled staff exists. For those of you unfamiliar with the weapon it's essentially three staffs put together with chains and makes for a very bizarre looking weapon. My question has always been why does this weapon exists. In this movie we find out its origin. Though simple the weapon was created to take on an opponent that wields two swords. And there you have it a purpose for a seemingly useless weapon.

All nerdom aside the movie does run into the problems of older kung fu films. Since I was introduced to kung fu with films like drunken master anything that doesn't involve fists flying and an incredible rate feels staged and unrealistic. Sadly that is the case with this movie some of the time as the fights with weapons especially seem like a step by step process rather than a real fight between warriors.

That's not to say there isn't plenty of kung fu fun to enjoy. We've still got our crazy sound effects and some impressive moves. I also liked how the movie shows us how the training pays off in subtle ways rather than obvious ways. Usually in a big sports movie there comes a moment that the particular athlete has trained for for at least half of the movie. In kung fu movies they have similar things but it might be one particular lesson that they needed to learn before they could defeat their most powerful opponent. In most movies of that nature some sort of flashback or inner voice chimes in to remind the individual of their training and in doing so they end triumphing in a glorious fashion. Here every bit of the training is shown off in the final fight scenes from the seemingly cruel exercise to increase wrist strength to his weapon mastery. Thankfully it's just something you'll pick up if you're watching as oppose to the main character going "Oh yeah! that's what I learned! I got this."

All else aside the movie holds up remarkably well because it doesn't try to take itself too seriously and simply goes for a more comedic approach to the training and consequently adds to the Shaolin legend without reinventing it.

I do have one complaint though. When these movies show up on Dragon Dynasty I've noticed that nearly all of them have some sort of audio commentary. And while I know the man is clearly a fan beyond fans what qualifies the RZA and some random film critic to make a commentary about a film they didn't make? That job is set aside for the directors, producers and actors and more than likely should just be the director and the actors. When you bring in someone else the entire thing is like getting your information from wikipedia. Some of it might be true but there's a good chance some of it isn't.